From the archive: Distraught family at a loss over girl's slaying in alley

Robert Mitchum, Stacy St. Clair and Deanese Williams-HarrisTribune staff reporters

The last time Mya Lyons' family saw her alive, she was dressed head to toe in pink. Pink shoes, pink pants, pink T-shirt.

It was her favorite color -- one that also is featured prominently in her bedroom filled with Dora the Explorer dolls, Barbies and an extensive Bratz collection.

The 9-year-old had gone to bed about 11 p.m. Monday after telling her grandmother she was tired and wanted to sleep. About 10 minutes later, the family heard a door shut. The noise drew the girl's father downstairs to investigate, relatives said.

After quickly discovering Mya wasn't in the house, relatives went outside to search for her. About 15 minutes later, Richard Lyons Sr. found his daughter wounded in a secluded alley near their home. His anguished screams awoke the quiet South Side street where the family has lived for more than two decades.

Lyons took his daughter, still dressed in her pink outfit, to nearby Jackson Park Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. His wife, Octavia, said Mya was breathing when her father found her.

Authorities said the girl was stabbed several times with what appears to be a knife.

An autopsy performed Tuesday determined Mya died of multiple injuries in a homicide, the Cook County medical examiner's office said. It's unlikely the girl was sexually assaulted, based on the autopsy, Chief of Detectives Thomas Byrne said.

No one is in custody, police said.

As police combed the neighborhood for evidence Tuesday, Mya's father wept as he spoke with reporters. He described his daughter as "a girlie-girl" who was adored by her family, including her three half-siblings.

Relatives said Mya lived most of the year with her mother and half-brother Omary, 5, in Addison, but she spent weekends and a portion of the summer with her father and stepmother in his home in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood. The girl knew everyone in the 8400 block of South Gilbert Court, a dead-end road with a dozen homes and a Pentecostal church, they said.

Tucked behind an airplane pillow factory, the houses -- almost half of which are newly built -- cannot be seen from the major thoroughfare to the south. The street ends at the secluded alley where Mya's body was found, a small piece of land near elevated Metra tracks and overrun with trees, brush and weeds.

"This is the kind of street where you can go outside at night and not worry," neighbor Brenda Russell said.

Mya's mother, Ericka Barnes, who had planned to pick up her daughter at the end of the week, had no concerns about the neighborhood either. Barnes said she never worried about her daughter's safety when she was at her father's house.

"I wouldn't let my baby go over there if I thought there was something wrong," Barnes said. "If something was wrong, my baby would tell me."

A neighbor last saw Mya sitting alone on her front porch about 10 p.m. Monday. The girl had spent most of the sunny day outside playing with neighborhood kids.

Mya's parents both say the little girl, who had just finished the 3rd grade, would never have left the house without telling someone.

"Mya would've never went somewhere at 11-something at night in the dark, never," her mother said. "Mya wouldn't do that. That's my baby. I know she would never do that."

In the Addison apartment complex where Mya and her mother lived, she was known as a smart, kind and sweet child who loved to create dances, practice cheers and play dolls with her best friend, Arianna McCastle, who lived upstairs.

"She had a wisdom beyond her years," Arianna's mother, Robin, said of Mya.

Mya's South Side neighbors held a vigil Tuesday afternoon to encourage anyone with information about the crime to call the police. Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. (21st) and local pastors offered a $5,500 reward for information leading to the killer's arrest.

Brookins, whose ward covers the area, also lambasted Metra, which he says owns the overrun alley and has ignored his repeated requests to better maintain the property. The city's Streets and Sanitation Department will fix the malfunctioning street lamp over the alley soon, he said. "It's unfortunate that it takes a tragedy to get results," Brookins said.

A Metra spokeswoman declined comment Tuesday, saying she was unfamiliar with the location. A Streets and Sanitation spokesman said the lamp was working during an early July inspection. Tests performed Tuesday, however, showed the light had a circuit problem.

Authorities, meanwhile, canvassed the area and sought possible video images that may help in solving the crime. They also interviewed neighbors about anything they may have seen Monday night. "It's an isolated spot [where the body was found]," Gresham District Cmdr. Mike Kuemmeth said. "If this person left the scene, somebody had to see it."

The girl's family has been cooperating with investigators, authorities said. Richard Lyons, who police say is not a suspect, broke down crying as he asked for the public's help in finding his daughter's killer.

"I believe it takes a village to raise a child. I also believe it takes a village to find a criminal, so please help find my baby's criminal," he said.

Mya's death sparked anger in her neighborhood, where residents considered themselves immune from the violence that has afflicted Chicago in recent months. Some blamed the Police Department for not sufficiently patrolling the streets. Others pointed to criminals who prey on working-class families struggling to raise their children.

"I don't know what the problem is, but I find it quite devastating," resident Ahmin Walker said. "This should not be happening. Something needs to be done. It has to stop. It just has to stop."

Eddie Cooper, who works a few blocks from the Lyons' home, brought his 7-year-old daughter to the crime scene to teach her about the dangers children face if they don't follow their parents' rules. He said he wanted her to understand why she can't go outside when he's not watching and why he limits where she can go.

"This is reality here," he said. "I want her to know how this little girl's family misses her and how she's not coming back."

Richard Lyons said he, too, hopes people learn from his daughter's death.

"If you have a child, love that child and give that child all that you can," he said. "Because tomorrow, as I found out, isn't promised."